Sadiq Khan
But a government minister said he lost the Tory whip for "anti-Muslim hatred".
The former Tory deputy chairman said it would be "a sign of weakness".
But the deputy PM said yesterday that the former Tory deputy chairman lost the whip because he refused to apologise for his remarks about Sadiq Khan
It was a question Mark Harper faced repeatedly when speaking to broadcasters this morning.
The London mayor accused the Tory pair of stoking "the politics of division".
The former Tory deputy chairman lost the party whip after failing to apologise for his attack on Sadiq Khan.
It is a dramatic fall from grace for the party's former deputy chairman.
He said the London mayor had "given our capital city away to his mates".
Richard Holden provoked disbelief after he claimed the video has "not been edited, it's been clipped".
Conservative Party cut short a video of the Mayor of London making a verbal slip.